


Running Out of Time

by Gyhl



Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Buried Alive, Claustrophobia, M/M, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:40:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26762986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gyhl/pseuds/Gyhl
Summary: Caged |Buried Alive| Collapsed Building
Relationships: Harry Hart | Galahad/Gary "Eggsy" Unwin
Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950607
Comments: 8
Kudos: 66
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Running Out of Time

Eggsy had given up struggling. Well, he’d less given up struggling and more gone into a nearly catatonic state. He hated small spaces, and there were few things smaller than a fucking casket. Especially one that had been fucking _padded_ to keep him from moving all that much.

His wrists, ankles, and waist were all cuffed in place. His wrists had been free at the funeral; at _his_ funeral. But then… he’d been almost totally paralyzed at the time. He’d been breathing so shallowly that there had been almost no movement in his chest. He’d heard Harry, speaking so quietly and emotionlessly, say: ‘He looks so wrong laying there’.

He’d tried to scream. Multiple times. He’d tried to open his eyes, make himself shift somehow, do _anything_. But either he hadn’t been able to or it had been so slight that no one had noticed. And when the funeral had been over, they’d taken him in the back and bound his wrists. A weighted casket had been sent with the procession while he had been taken elsewhere.

Even if Harry or Merlin realized it was a sham, they wouldn’t find him in time. Once that realization had clicked home, he’d calmed down. Because he was already dead, he just hadn’t done the dying part. He wasn’t even sure who’d grabbed him. His mind wanted to say the Russians, but that was cos they were sorta the go-to bad guy in the Bond films. Bond or the Bond Girl always got out or was rescued before they could actually die. But… his life had never been that kinda movie.

He closed his eyes, wondering what would it be like. Was there actually an afterlife? Would he feel the life draining out of him and then be somewhere nice? Somewhere his dad had gone? Or were the Fundies right and he’d wake up in Hell for being bi?

And how much air was in a casket? How much less was there with the padding to keep him still? How much had he already used up by panicking? How much was even left?

He felt himself falling asleep. Was this It? Or was it that third reaction to a threat; the reaction that came when neither flight nor fight were options? Was he just… falling asleep to not deal with what was happening? And, in the end, did it really matter? He wasn’t going to wake up either way.

*~*~*

The first thing he was aware of was the slow but steady _beep_ coming from somewhere over his left side. Then he realized he could feel cool air being pushed through his sinuses and the short tubes for the oxygen. His throat was so dry and there was… weight?... on his leg.

He opened his eyes and saw Harry asleep. Harry had been sitting in a chair beside his bed, and now he was asleep with his head on one arm and the other draped over his leg. He knew if he moved, Harry would wake up. Harry must have been there for a few days, judging by the light beard he had going on. And his hair was in its natural, softly curled state. 

“Haz,” he croaked. Fuck was his throat dry.

Harry started awake, looked around, and started to lay his head back down when he realized Eggsy’s eyes were open. He smiled softly. “You know I hate that nickname.”

“Yeah,” he said with a grin.

“Need a drink?”

“Fuck yes.”

Harry left the room for just a moment and came back with a stack of lunch-pack apple juice cups. He set them down on the bed, all save for one; that one he opened and handed to Eggsy. Eggsy drank it down in a draught and Harry already had a new one waiting.

He drank the entire stack. It felt so good on his throat and tasted so fucking sweet. Was it that he’d nearly died, or the oxygen, or however long he’d been out for? He settled back against the pillows when they were empty.

“How?”

“How did we know?”

Eggsy nodded.

“Well… we didn’t, actually,” Harry said. “I, um.” He coughed. “I may have started insisting to Merlin that you couldn’t be dead, that something was wrong, that there was just no way it was possible. I may have, ah, punched him in the face at one point.”

Eggsy grinned at him.

“So, in order to mollify me, Merlin hacked into their cameras and pulled up their footage. And… then we watched as they swapped caskets. As soon as we had a direction, I left, taking Lancelot and Percival with me, and Merlin remotely programmed the GPS as he had more information.” Harry was quiet for a moment. “We let her drive, of course.”

“Of course.”

“You had… well…” Harry swallowed hard. “You had quite clearly begun suffocating by the time we dug you up. I thought…”

“Didn’t blame you,” Eggsy said softly. “Wasn’t no way you coulda known.”

Harry sat beside him on the bed and brushed his hair back. “We’re going to find the people who did this,” he said. “ _I_ am going to find the people who did this.”

“Later,” Eggsy said, holding a hand up to him.

Harry took his hand and lay beside him, pulling the younger man into his arms. It wasn’t too long before Eggsy had fallen asleep again, and Harry didn’t move. He couldn’t have made himself move even if he had to. It had been close; too damn close.


End file.
